$($a$)$ There are five commonly used methods for the determination of promotional budget. One of them is referred to as the $$percentage$-$of$-$sales$$ method. Under this method, at times, weighted average sales for past years are used as reference for calculating the following year$$s budget. Calculate the promotional budget for the year $2021$ with the following sales scenario:

$*$ Sales

Yr$2020$ $$14$ million

Yr$2019$ $$16$ million

Yr$2018$ $$10$ million

Yr$2017$ $$7$ million

Yr$2016$ $$12$ million

$*$ with assigned weight at $5\%$ a simple reduction$-$of$-$relevance per year; and;

$*$ with $2\%$ of weighted sales as budget

Calculation steps are required to be shown clearly in your answer without which a zero mark will still be awarded even if the correct answer is presented. Consider yourself cautioned. $(6$ marks$)$

$($b$)$ Using the same data above, should you find Yr$2017$s sales figure not to be reflecting that of a $$normal$$ year and wish not to have it included as part of the calculation, make all adjustments necessary and re$-$calculate the budget using the remaining four years$$ data.

Again, calculation steps are required to be shown clearly in your answer without which a zero mark will still be awarded even if the correct answer is presented. Consider yourself cautioned. $(4$ marks$)$

$($c$)$ Excluding ANY of the $$percentage$-$of$-$sales$$ methods, there are four other methods, namely,

$($i$)$ Objective$-$and$-$task method;

$($ii$)$ Competitive parity method;

$($iii$)$ Affordable budgeting method; and;

$($iv$)$ Fixed$-$sum$-$per$-$unit method

that are also employed in the calculating of promotional budgets. What types of company and$/$or individual do you think would likely use each of the above listed four methods and the reason why? $(6$ marks... $0\mathrm{.}5$ mark for each correct type listed and $1$ mark for each sound reason given.$)$

$($d$)$ Out of all five methods, what might be your choice and why? $(4$ marks... $1$ mark for your choice and $3$ marks for the quality of your reasoning behind your choice given$)$